One of the initiatives of the new Mexican government has been the execution of a pact among the political forces of the three major political parties, the Institutional Revolutionary Party (PRI), the National Action Party (PAN) and the Party of the Democratic Revolution (PRD). The so-called "Pact for Mexico" (Pacto por México) was off to a good start and set out to address long awaited structural reforms for the country. Everything was running smoothly until the PAN made a claim against officials of the Government of Veracruz (PRI) accusing such officials of using public funds intended for social programs of the Department of Social Development (SEDESOL) in order to improperly influence voters in favor of PRI. This led representatives of the opposing parties, PAN and PRD, to withdraw from the Pact. After several weeks of negotiations, an Addendum to the Pact for Mexico was announced. Various members of the political parties and the government, headed by President Enrique Peña Nieto, signed the document at Mexico's National Palace (Palacio Nacional), creating an opportunity to continue moving forward with the pending reforms: tax, energy and telecommunications. The complete document contains the result of the parties' negotiations to reactivate the original Pact for Mexico, including 11 additional agreements established in order to regulate governors, especially as to electoral matters, and to avoid the misappropriation of funds towards political-electoral objectives. The day following the execution of the Addendum, the so-called tax reform was announced in the presence of all participants, including President Peña Nieto, the goal of which is to end the informal nature of the Mexican economy. For instance, six of every ten employees in Mexico work under an informal labor arrangement, directly impacting equality for Mexicans where some, but not all, employees have social security, and a need clearly exists to make advances in the country's productivity. The Pact for Mexico was well received internationally, so much so that in his recent visit to Mexico, U.S. President Barack Obama indicated he would like to have a pact for the United States in order to carry out the reforms on his agenda.
